HORTONVILLE – In their meeting on Wednesday, November 12, Town of Delaware’s Town Board discussed an upcoming legal battle between the towns of Sullivan County and Millenium Pipeline Company, LLC, which supplies natural gas along a 263-mile pipeline that straddles the border with Pennsylvania in Western New York and then moves south through Sullivan County to Orange County. 

The pipeline, which began service in 2008, was involved in a legal battle in February 2021, when a tax certiorari litigation settlement led to a $24 million reduction in the property value of a Millenium-owned parcel of land with a pump station in the Town of Highland. This settlement not only reduced the property value, but also diminished the company’s property taxes, which left the Town of Highland and Eldred Central School District to pick up the fiscal slack. 

The next battle in court will be over the tax valuation of the pipeline infrastructure in several Sullivan County towns that is being contested by Millenium. The Democrat reached out to Millenium for comment, but President Mark Bering responded, “We do not comment on active litigation.”

Councilperson Ian Blumenthal asked Supervisor Scott DuBois if Millenium’s tax contribution to the town would increase after litigation. DuBois responded, “No, because if they win, then that value that we have them on the books right now goes down, and if that value goes down, then they pay less.”

Town Attorney Ken Klein weighed in on the discussion. “The answer depends on the outcome of the litigation,” he said. “If they prevail to an extent that they push the value of the assessment down below what the math would result, you could wind up with a loss in revenue.” Klein said if the town wins, the result could be more tax revenue for the town.

“We’re not alone in this, this is every town in the corridor that [the pipeline] runs through, and it starts in Fremont and ends down in Forestburgh, and then it goes into Orange County. The Sullivan County towns aren’t alone in it either. My understanding is that they are challenging their assessments right down the line from upstate all the way down,” said Klein. 

After DuBois said the legal showdown would take several years, Klein agreed. “This is going to take quite a while for it to shake out, and everybody’s going to spend a lot of money fighting it, which is why we’re all trying to coordinate,” he said. 

Klein acknowledged District 5 Legislator Cat Scott, who was in attendance, saying, “Cat knows… [The] county is working on it. We’re trying to all get together so we can hopefully coordinate our resources and have a single defense against [Millenium].” Recent published reports confirmed that Klein was contacted by Sullivan County’s legal team to join in a coordinated legal defense against the company. 

According to Sullivan County Director of Communications Dan Hust the county is collaborating with the relevant towns and school districts by jointly paying for a law firm (Harris Beach) to represent them in court. A conference in New York State Supreme Court is scheduled for January 15.

DuBois said he was planning a meeting with the other towns affected and that he hoped the county legal team would take the lead. Klein responded, “All I can tell you from my conversations with the county attorney, with you guys, Fremont, Tusten: we’re all on board; where the other towns and school districts are, I can’t say.”